Beverly Semmes receives "Anonymous was a Woman" award

TEN DISTINGUISHED ARTISTS RECOGNIZED FOR THEIR BODY OF WORK: Announcing the 2014 Recipients of the

Anonymous Was A Woman Award

Anonymous Was A Woman announced today the ten artists selected to receive the
Foundation’s nineteenth annual awards. The recipients are all women over 40 years of
age who have significantly contributed to their field, while continuing to grow and pursue
their work. The grant supports and sustains the creative voice and role of the mature
female artist, an often under-represented demographic.

Each recipient will receive a “no strings” grant of $25,000, providing them the freedom
to continue developing their creative vision. This year’s winners include artists working in painting, ceramics, theater, sculpture and performance art. Five of this year’s winners are from New York and the rest are from across the country.

Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, director of the program, explained, “Anonymous Was A
Woman Awards provide important recognition in artists’ personal and artistic
development. The financial gift helps artists buy time, space, materials, and equipment,
often at early stages of a new project, as well as important emotional support. Perhaps
most important, the Award offers an opportunity for women artists of inordinate talent
and accomplishment to achieve greater recognition.”

The name of the grant program, Anonymous Was A Woman, refers to a line in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. As the name implies, the nominators and those associated with the program are unnamed. The only requirement of the Award is that recipients inform the program how the gift affected their life or work.

“The money makes its way handily into more supplies, more assistance, probably more work,” wrote Jane Hammond a 2012 winner. “But, more importantly, I feel it makes its way into an expanded state of mind-more forward leaning, expansive and bold.” To date, 191 women have received the award.

Each year, an outstanding group of distinguished women – art historians, curators, writers and previous winners – serve as nominators.

Anonymous Was A Woman, a program of FJC-A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, is administered by Philanthropy Advisors, LLC, a comprehensive consulting and management organization for private philanthropy.